It is exceedingly taxing to reconcile how a government that constantly plays up its environmental credential can preside over a capital city for 16 years without decisively dealing with the festering and hazardous garbage dump along Mandela Avenue.
And before the apologists for the government begin to trot out the well-worn argument that the city council is responsible for managing the dump/landfill, let’s put that to rest. The city council as currently comprised, constructed and legislated for does not have the capacity to handle a calamity of this size. Moreover, even in the absence of reformed local government laws to formalize fiscal transfers from the centre to the various local government organs, the government has thwarted attempts by the 1994 council to initiate its own revenue gathering so as to improve services to the city.
Indeed, the long-stalled project to open up a modern landfill at Eccles and close off the Mandela site was not contracted with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in the name of the council but in the name of the government.
It is reprehensible that hundreds of citizens and schoolchildren on a daily basis have been exposed to the health dangers posed by the smoke and fumes issuing from the dump and the unchecked scavenging that occurs there. The dump also poses the risk of catastrophic explosions.
The evolution of the dump is a cautionery tale for multilateral funding institutions like the IDB and exemplification of the worst type of procrastination, red tape and governance. The matter of solid waste disposal in a sprawling, urban magnet like Georgetown is a very serious problem. Yet, the IDB and the government have not been able to have the East Bank project started up despite years of engagement. Bids will be invited early next year but no one should hold their breath. The dialogue on what to do about solid waste disposal in the city has a depressing history. As far back as 2000, the government and the IDB were fine-tuning an 18-month extension to the life of the Mandela facility, its rapid closure and the transfer of operations to the East Bank. Eight years later it hasn’t happened as yet and hundreds in the city – particularly children and the elderly – are risking their health by having to sample the insalubrious emissions from the dump site.
Ironically, this infamous dump celebrated its 25th anniversary this year. What began at the back of Le Repentir cemetery as a facility to last only two years took on a life of its own as decision makers failed to do what they are elected to do. It is unforgivable that it will take at least another year before there is a real solution.
The only positive consequence from the smoking garbage has been the emergence of two non-governmental organizations at the fore of the campaign for relief and justice for the citizens of the city. The Guyana Human Rights Association and the Guyana Citizens’ Initiative have underlined their discontent with the official response to the problem and have constructed a plan. It is a plan that should be taken seriously by the government and the council.
The pitiable images of one or two council workers with slim hoses and a small pump trying to douse the flames are searing metaphors for the condition the country finds itself in. Yes, we can spend upwards of $500M on Carifesta but a foetid dump which assoiled the air breathed by some of those who were here for the festival can barely attract attention. The government has been all too slow to react to this present instalment of the dump woes and all too reactive for the last 16 years. It needs to marshal an aggressive battle plan that encompasses the points raised by the NGOs.
Quelling the fires is the immediate priority. Preventing it from flaring up again requires an entirely new approach. The state will have to allocate adequate resources to immediately secure the area, deploy properly protected workers on the dump to fire-fight on a regular basis and to begin capping the area. Scavenging will have to be closed off to protect the health of the scavengers and maintain control over it.
Parallel to this, the government must fast-track arrangement for the new facility. There has been enough bureaucratic twiddling of thumbs and hand-wringing. If the IDB and government were to calculate the health costs of the dumping for the last eight years smack in the middle of the city it would be a sobering lesson on the toll of indecision and delay. It has gone on for long enough.
